Authors

Vadym Zhelovskyy¹; Kacper Kozdrój¹; Thomas Chan¹;  ¹ University of Warsaw, Poland

Discussion

In Poland, youth political attitudes are forming in a context marked by the rise of far-right movements such as Konfederacja, Młodzi dla Wolności, and Ruch Narodowy, alongside growing Euroscepticism in the wake of immigration pressures and the Russia–Ukraine war. These young citizens, many just entering the electorate, will play a decisive role in shaping the political future of Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing on John Zaller’s (1992) Receive–Accept–Sample (RAS) model, this study conceptualises the EU as a potential elite cue provider and aims at evaluating the factors that impact its (in)-effectiveness in shaping youth perceptions of European integration ad their attitudes towards domestic far-right ideologies. Through semi-structured interviews with Polish high school students, and particularly through our fieldwork with extremist right-wing groups in Poland such as Młodzi dla Wolności, we qualitatively trace the pathway from EU communication to political orientation, integrating the EU Soft Power Hypothesis and considering identity as a mediating factor. Our findings challenge the assumption that Elite Cue Theory offers a dominant explanation in this context. Contrary to the model’s predictions, we find limited evidence that the EU functions as a meaningful elite cue for Polish teenagers. Instead, political orientations appear more strongly shaped by domestic, endogenous influences. However, the EU’s weak presence in youth-targeted digital spaces, particularly platforms like TikTok, has left an informational void that may facilitate the spread of far-right narratives. This communicative gap, compounded by geopolitical instability and the economic effects of the Russia war on Ukraine, risks deepening Euroscepticism and alienating young citizens in peripheral member states, thereby undermining the EU’s cohesion and legitimacy.